Our client, Garden Gourmet, wanted us to raise awareness about its range of vegan products, to show that plant-based food can be easy, tasty and not costly; and to create moments to buy.
They challenged us to create an experience that raised awareness of Garden Gourmet products, changed perceptions about cooking and preparing vegan food and encouraged trial at home.
We timed the Garden Gourmet campaign for January, the traditional go-vegan month known as Veganuary, highlighting the huge potential within the Garden Gourmet range. To show how a vegan meal could be easily and simply prepared, we paired with food influencer ella_vegan - a vegan blogger with over 30K Instagram & 7K TikTok followers.
Coronavirus saw the boom of the humble QR code. With more consumers than ever using them in their daily lives, the campaign was perfectly timed to capture this increased adoption. Augmented Reality via QR codes accessed through mobile phones, is an effective way to capitalise on product placement. We ensured consumer engagement by harnessing the technology in a unique way. With the recent surge in interest for plant-based alternatives both for health reasons and sustainability, combining veganism with this progressive use of AR was a win-win solution.
By using digital at the heart of our campaign we informed and inspired customers, showing them how to cook & prepare delicious meals.Vegan meals are still relatively new to many consumers, so watching and copying a vegan cook at work was essential.
Digital was only part of our strategy, we also created branded displays in store aisles, showing how the Garden Gourmet range complemented a healthy lifestyle, along with BAs to engage with customers,challenging them to make the switch to a meatless meal. A takeaway leaflet with a tasty recipe included, encouraged sourcing the ingredients in store.
Our campaign ran during Veganuary and used Augmented Reality to educate Tesco customers on the ease, health benefits and tastiness of using Garden Gourmet products to prepare meat-free, tasty, vegan meals at home.
We designed a suite of marketing materials all printed with a QR code. With branded displays, our Brand Ambassadors in store helped customers scan the code so that in addition to the Garden Gourmet product, they could buy any additional ingredients needed for the recipe. From the comfort of their own homes, customers could scan the QR code and bring a vegan food influencer (virtually) into their kitchen to give then a step-by-step guide to on how to prepare a quick, easy and delicious meal.
The campaign did more than introducing customers to the Garden Gourmet range: vegan meals are still relatively new to many, so our digital solution enabled them to watch and copy a vegan cook at work to see how straight-forward preparing vegan food can be. It was perfectly timed to coincide with an increasing awareness in using QR codes, and was a fun and interactive experience for customers.
Over 21,200 leaflets were handed out to customers, with more than 90% given to people who had not heard of or tried Garden Gourmet before. 32% of shoppers engaged with the entire 12-minute experience.This was outstanding brand engagement and commitment for a very low cost compared to other marketing channels.
The @ella_vegan Cookalong showed customers how effortless it can be to cook a vegan meal. The chosen recipe addressed any misconceptions about cost and ease of cooking. The whole meal took just 15minutes to prepare. The #MeatlessMondays hashtag enabled customers to tap into– and join – a strong community of 80,000+ people using this hashtag on social media.
Brand Ambassadors urged customers to reduce the amount of meat they ate rather than refuse. Ella echoed the importance of reducing rather than refusing meat.
Augmented Reality was the extra value, going further than just introducing the Garden Gourmet range, and offered added value in the form of the QR Cook along. Nearly 55% of customers who engaged with thepromotion were converted.
The campaign also delivered 154.5% sales uplift difference on the activity day (% change in incremental sales during the activity compared to control stores) and 189.7% incremental penetrationon the activity day (% of households reached in activity stores that featured products compared to control stores).
‘I love the AR feature on the phone, makes cooking that bit more enjoyable. I might even start following Ella on Instagram as well now.’
(*Data based on Tesco Clubcard and provided by dunnhumby)
